Dubai property growth will slow down: Expert

According to the chairman of Damac, the days of 20 to 30% annual increases in the property market are over and Dubai will soon start experiencing price levelling.

Growth in the Dubai property market will slow to single-digit levels for the foreseeable future, according to Hussain Sajwani, the founder and chairman of Damac Properties, one of the UAE’s flagship developers.
Speaking exclusively to The National in an interview, Sajwani said that the days of 20 to 30% annual increases in the property market were over, and that the “price levelling” experienced by Damac and other developers in the past six months would continue.
“The drop during the crisis was dramatic, but so has been the recovery, with 20 to 30% increases in 2012 and 2013,” he said. “To have that level of increase for a third year would be a bad thing. At Damac we see it close to single digits for the current year and beyond – between 8 and 10%.”
He said the slowdown in price increases was due in part to measures taken by the Dubai authorities and by developers to reduce speculation in off-plan sales, on which Damac’s business model is based. “Speculation has been reduced dramatically. Speculators are being driven out of the business,” he said.